SEATTLE — Hear the one about the cab driver who helped save a pitcher’s career?

This actually happened to Mariners’ reliever Wade LeBlanc. In a career filled with too many potholes and not enough pinnacles, LeBlanc still smiles when he retells this story, not simply for the comic relief it provides now, but for the ineradicable influence it had on him.

On the surface, this story is about how this improbable meeting and conversation led to a decisive change in the way LeBlanc pitches. But it’s really more about the critical shift in the way LeBlanc looked at his own world from the intersection of life and sport.

Here’s how it all went down:

Pitching for the Padres, the organization that drafted him, LeBlanc took the ball for a start at Fenway Park on June 20, 2011. Boston’s first hitter, Jacoby Ellsbury, lined out to center field. It was all downhill from there.